Posts by jek
Spring Morning
10 May 2020, 5:10 a.m. I get out of bed and look out my window. Hunt Mountain is encased in a white fog bank with trees and portions of the mountain showing through. It’s beautiful. It’s photo-worthy. I take my camera and go outside. It’s 40-degrees and very damp. It rained hard yesterday afternoon. I empty .71 inch of rain from the rain gauge. Perhaps 12 head of elk are grazing in the grass in the corner of the potato field where the pivot doesn’t reach. The potatoes haven’t come up yet. The dark, damp soil makes a nice contrast with the luxurious spring green of the grass, the light green of the newly-leafed-out aspens, the dark green of the evergreen trees, and the strikingly white fog.
Read MoreThe Fulness of Mine Intent
Nephi wrote that “the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto (God).” (1 Nephi 6:4).
What is the fulness of mine intent? What is yours?
Home Based Church
Marjorie and I are thoroughly enjoying our home church meetings. In my phone conversation with Eli yesterday, I mentioned that if things were normal, it should be fast Sunday, so I had started a fast. He pointed out that our meeting should be a testimony meeting then. That hadn’t occurred to me. Accordingly, after the opening hymn, prayer, sacrament hymn, and blessing of the sacrament, I bore my testimony.
Read MoreDiscipline
The leaders of our ward are struggling with what must seem to them a huge problem. It is a family of four children ages 11 to 4, their unemployed father, and their cancer-stricken mother. The mother has just been sent off to Utah to be cared for by her sisters-in-law. Her leg broke because of the cancer, and her outlook is bleak. The father quit his job to take care of the children.
Read MoreNarrow Viewpoints
When I got out of bed at 5:45, I looked out the back window and noticed a long, narrow strip of sunlight across the lawn. It was perhaps 6-inches wide, and two dozen feet long. It was made by the light of the rising sun coming in the north side of our east window and exiting through the south side of our west window. The sun now rises (3 May) toward the north. As the sun gets higher in the sky it moves south and makes an arc across the sky.
Read MoreTeach Me
It has occurred to me that I have learned few things at church. Nearly everything that I’ve learned has been taught to me by the Spirit. The value of church meetings is not in what I learn there, but in being put in touch with the Holy Ghost. That is the major purpose of church meetings: to put a person in a setting and in a frame of mind where the Spirit can reach him.
Read MoreThey Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
When I was very little, probably about three or four, I have a dim memory of going with my mother to the Haines Food Center which occupied the space to the south of the post office. She did all of her grocery shopping there. The Helmers ran the store. My dim memory is of going there to access the food locker that Mom and Dad rented. Back in those days no one owned a freezer. In order to freeze the meat that you butchered on the farm, you rented a food locker. Marjorie similarly remembers her uncle, Tom, having a food locker at Jackson’s Food Market, where he put the deer that he got every year.
Read MoreIn An Instant
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb weeping, and in the deepest distress. She found the tomb empty, which compounded her sorrow. She turned to the gardener(as she supposed) who was standing there, and asked where Jesus’ body was. Jesus said, “Mary.” Suddenly recognizing Him, her utmost sorrow was replaced by unspeakable joy in an instant.
Read MoreAnd Then What?
This evening I received a beautiful e-card from my cousin with the Easter message, “He is risen.” I wished that I had something appropriate that I could send in return.
Read MoreConference Notes, Quotes, and Thoughts
1. The audio was eight seconds ahead of the visual transmission for our Saturday afternoon session. That caused a most unfortunate result. President Oaks was conducting the sustaining of officers. Because of the delay, as he asked for any negative votes, the First Presidency all raised their hands each time. At the top of my page of notes I wrote: “When we are slow to react, we may lose the opportunity, and may even bring about the opposite result of what we had hoped.”
Read MoreMy Feelings After Conference
I have just listened to the two Saturday general sessions of April 2020 conference. They were tremendous. Conference was filled with the Spirit. I made notes. There are many things that I want to think about and to write about. As I do so, I know that the Spirit will teach me additional things.
Read MoreBirds I have Known
I have always loved birds. I’m not a serious ornithologist, but I’ve always been interested. I’ve studied the local birds, and know their habits and songs. Most of them I can recognize by sight, flight pattern, or sound. They each have their interesting points.
Read MoreTrip to Town
We ventured to make a trip to town to pay the bills and get some pills. We haven’t been to town for 18 days, and don’t intend to go again for a month. The car’s battery was dead. There are lots of little things that require a small amount of electricity on these new cars; so if they sit unused for a week, the battery gets depleted.
Read MoreUnique Experience?
It is nearly 5:00 A.M. I stood for some minutes in my dark living room contemplating the valley. The valley was in darkness but pockmarked with the lights of people’s yard lights and the lights of Haines. Nothing moved. No one was even out checking their calving cows. Everything is peaceful and still.
Read MoreThe Plan
We must be grateful to Corianton. We are blessed with a great deal of valuable knowledge because of his mistakes. Corianton was the young son of the prophet Alma. He succumbed to temptation, and was thereafter subjected to a 4-chapter lecture from his father. Alma recorded what he taught Corianton, and thus we have some of the best teachings in all of scripture concerning the spirit world, the resurrection of the dead, the seriousness of sexual sin, what happens at death, the Judgment, the necessity of repentance, and a knowledge of the plans that are in place to return us to the presence of God.
Read MoreWake-up Call
Doctrine and Covenants 45:30-31 puts forth a troubling prophecy:
“And in that generation (during the Restoration of the gospel and just preceding the coming of Christ) shall the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
COVID-19
The world is upside down. The COVID-19 virus made its appearance in Wuhan, China in December, and has now spread around the world. It hits the elderly particularly hard. 80% of deaths from the disease are elderly people. 75% of deaths are males. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a pandemic a few days ago. It is particularly bad in Italy, Iran, and South Korea, as well as in China.
Read MoreMy Favorite Color
What’s my favorite color?
It might be turquoise blue,
like the morning sky over the mountain.
When I was 5 I had a cowboy hat that color.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Why do they call wanting to have everything orderly a disorder? “Obsessive compulsive disorder” is a misnomer for sure. I understand OCD people. I like to have everything orderly, but I’m not obsessive about it. I feel compelled to put things right if I have the time and the inclination to do so, but I’m otherwise able to ignore the problem. I don’t have to jump right up to straighten the picture, but I’ll be sure to do it before I leave the room. I believe in leaving the room, or the world, in better shape than when I came in. I live by the maxim, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” It’s what I call “having a sense of responsibility.”
Read MoreGifts
As I knelt to have my evening prayer I was interested to note the words that I used. I thanked my heavenly Father for “the gift of my marvelous wife,” and “the gift of the scriptures” that I was about to read. I then got into bed, opened the Book of Mormon, and the second verse that I read was Mormon telling the people that he was permitted to speak unto them “because of the gift of (God’s) calling unto (him).” (Moroni 7:2).
Read MoreSo Much that We Don’t Know
The scriptures can be maddening. There is so much that we don’t know. Hints are given, but we don’t know the stories behind the hints, and we’re not yet privileged to have the full accounts.
Read MoreAm I Essential to the Plan?
President Nelson has asked us as individuals to do several things this year. He has asked us to each read the Book of Mormon, and to ask ourselves questions as we do so; questions such as, what would my life be like without the Book of Mormon, or could Joseph Smith have written this book? We’re to come up with our own questions.
Read MoreTrain Wreck
I must record two politically-motivated dreams that I’ve had this week.
The first was early Tuesday morning (4 February 2020). Iowa had held its first-in-the-nation caucus the evening before. In the dream I saw a line of ceramic tiles gaily cartwheeling on their corners down a railroad track. They represented the Trump train.
Breakfast Oatmeal
Communication and properly understanding one another is so very important. As I prepared our oatmeal and fruit breakfast this morning, I was reminded of an incident when I was a young teenager. Our parents had gone to Montana to see Dad’s mother, and left Ellen and I home. I fixed oatmeal for our breakfast. I felt very complimented when my little sister said, “This is tasty.”
Read MoreMarji’s Baptism
Marji, in a few minutes your dad and other holders of the Priesthood will sit you down in a chair and give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost teaches, protects, warns, comforts, brings peace, testifies of truth, and gives answers to your prayers, problems, and predicaments.
Get Thee into the Mountain
Nephi said, “The voice of the Lord came unto me, saying, Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And…I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.” (1 Nephi 17:7).
“And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord, wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.” (1 Nephi 18:3).
World’s Most Valuable Documents
Each member of the Church who is 12 or over is potentially in possession of what are arguably the two most valuable documents in the world. An infinitesimally small number of people have ever even been eligible to possess these two documents, and he or she who does not possess them is in a lamentable and dangerous position.
Read MoreThe Gift of Repentance
Over and over in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says to “say nothing but repentance to this generation.” (D&C 6:9, 11:9, 14:8, 19:21). That has troubled me in the past. If every church talk was about repentance I think that I might become bored and disinterested. But the older I get, the more I become aware of the magnitude of the huge gift that Christ has given us in making our repentance possible.
Read MoreA Lesson in Astronomy
Samuel the Lamanite made a one-of-its-kind prophecy. Matthew, half a world away, recorded the prophecy’s fulfillment. (Matthew 2). The prophecy was that at the time of Christ’s birth a new star would arise. (Helaman 14:5). The star was to be a sign that the event had happened. It was a sign looked for and anticipated by not only the Nephites, but by certain wise men who lived some-where far to the east of Jerusalem.
Read MoreStunners and Blockbusters
Among the basic doctrines of the Church are what Neal A. Maxwell called “stunners.” (Ensign, November 2003, pg.100). President James E. Faust called them “blockbusters.” (Ensign, November 2005, pgs. 21-22). They are monumental, astounding, life changing, and earth shaking. They totally change prevailing religious and philosophical thought. Here is my own collection:
Read MoreAn Essay on Life
All my life I’ve asked the older folks two questions: “When do you reach middle age, and when does old age begin?” I’ve never gotten a satisfactory answer. However, having arrived at both of those milestones, I can now answer my own questions.
Read MoreJames’ Fall
I need to record the experience of my fall last Thursday. It’s all I can think about. I experienced a miracle and a blessing. But for that fact, I’d be in the hospital.
Read MoreArthur Henry King
There is an entry in my journal about Arthur Henry King. Arthur Henry King was a professor at BYU for four years—the exact time that I was there as a student—and I didn’t get to have him as a professor! After reading the entry in my journal, I’m sick about that all over again. Let me tell you about Arthur Henry King.
Read MoreThe God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The scriptures refer to the Lord as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Isaiah, as another example, says, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob…” (2 Nephi 12:3). These men, these prophets, are singled out for especial honor and special mention.
Read MoreDo It Now
Marjorie attended BYU’s 2008 Education Week. One lecturer told how his father-in-law called home one day and asked if his teenagers were snowmobiling. A daughter answered the phone, and told him that they were. He told her that he had an uneasy feeling about it, and asked her to go tell them to put the snow mobiles away.
Read MoreRhinahippedeemotapus Complex
Adam showed two-and-a-half-year-old Caleb a picture of a rhinoceros the other day, and asked him what it was. Caleb knew. “That’s a rhinahippedeemotapus,” he said. I like that. As I thought about it, I decided that Caleb’s rhinahippedeemotapus is like other churches. They have many of the right syllables, but no idea how to correctly put them together.
Read MoreEssential to the Plan
I read an article that I wrote several years ago about Zoram. ( See “Zoram” in I Have No Greater Joy). I ended the article with the statement that he was “essential to the plan.” I have been turning that statement over in my mind.
Read MoreThe Light Which Shineth in Darkness
As I have been rereading the Doctrine and Covenants I have been struck by a sentence which the Lord uses repeatedly to describe Himself. He says, “I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” (D&C 6:21, 11:11, 34:2, 39:2, 45:7).
Read MorePriesthood Foreordination
I was reading in my son’s history book about young men in the Greek city-state of Sparta. At birth baby boys were examined. Those that were judged unfit were placed on the mountain and left to die. Boys were taken from their families at age 7 and placed in the care of military trainers whose job was to make them tough and mean. They slept on a mat of rushes and lived lives devoid of comforts.
Read MoreGrandparenthood
Father’s Day. It’s been an excellent one. The only thing better than being a father is being a grandfather. There are all sorts of advantages. For instance, this is the first time in the history of my fatherhood that I’ve made it home from church with my Father’s Day cookie intact. Up to now I’ve had to divide it between my begging, hungry children. Eli still begged, but he was old enough this year to realize that he didn’t have a valid claim.
Read MoreJournal Humor
I am home all alone for the first time since my hip replacement surgery four days ago. Margie and the kids have gone to church….Margie has a piano recital this evening for her students. She kept telling herself all the way through church to remember to go to the Baker County Public Library to pick up a key for the room there with the grand piano where she holds recitals. Her mind, however, was also on her husband at home, and wondering if he was behaving himself, and whether she’d find him crumpled in a heap on the floor somewhere. As she left the church parking lot, Margie said that she needed to go get the library key. Ivy expected her to turn right, but she turned left toward home. Ivy then expected her to turn left at the stop light, and take the 10th Street route to the library. Instead, Margie turned right toward home. Ivy said, “Didn’t you want to go get the library key?”
Read MoreOnly Forgotten Son
Last week in sacrament meeting the primary did their annual sacrament meeting program. It was the responsibility of one little girl to quote John 3:16. She stood at the podium and repeated into the microphone the words that were whispered into her ear by her prompter. She said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son…”
Read MoreHe Is the Father and the Son
I learned something in the deacons quorum lesson that I taught today.
When I first read the Book of Mormon as a non-member, I read the whole book looking for the answer to a particular question without finding it. The question that I had was this: Is God one person or two?
Other People’s Dogs
In going through journals number 28 and 29 I find several entries about dogs. They need to be brought together into one place. Today I told my sister, Ellen, that I generally never like other people’s dogs, but that her little “Jade” and Adam’s “Sam” are exceptions. They’re the only two dogs that I like. Maybe these stories have something to do with my feelings about all the rest.
Read MoreThe Lord Honors His Priesthood
Sunday I gave patriarchal blessings numbers 37 and 38. I fast and I pray before each blessing that the words which I speak may be given by the Spirit, and will be the blessings that the Lord desires the person to have. I am careful in my life that my thoughts and my actions may all be worthy ones so that I may be a fit conduit through which the Spirit may speak these blessings that I hope are from the Lord.
Read MoreTo See Ourselves as Others See Us
My big dread in life is of making a fool of myself in front of others. I can’t think of anything worse than to have people laughing at me. Some people seemingly have no such worries. It must be nice to be that full of confidence.
Read MoreResisting Temptation
When I get up in the middle of the night, I look out the windows. I’m looking for the bear. Before we built the deer fence around our place I often saw deer in the yard at night, and sometimes a cow or a bull or an elk. The fence stopped those nocturnal visits, but the fence doesn’t stop the bear. We know that he’s been there because of the piles of manure that he’s left. He comes to raid our orchard. He loves the plums and the apples, and he left evidence of his presence right in our back yard.
Read MoreDo It Heartily
This past week Danny was given the opportunity of playing his guitar and of singing with his wife at the funeral of a 94-year-old man. The man had requested that Danny do so. Danny was lamenting the fact, which is so often the case, that it takes a funeral to inform you about what an outstanding and interesting person the deceased individual was. “If only I had known these things during his life,” we say to ourselves, “I’d have been able to talk with him or her, and to ask questions, and to have learned some valuable things.”
Read MoreRemember Mr. King
This story happened before my time. It may have been 50 years before my time, I don’t know. Considering that I am now 72 years old, you’ll know that I have no firsthand knowledge of the affair, and I doubt that I ever knew anyone who did.
Read MoreLiving Life in Crescendo
I began life as a shy child. As a teenager I was nervous, and scared of crowds and the future. I wasn’t happy. I wanted to be, but everything looked dark. I wanted to be a good person. People thought I was good, and thought that I was happy, but I really didn’t like who I was. I had no idea how to change things.
Read More